Assessing the root causes of recurring food insecurity in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's food security crisis of 2015-2016 is the latest in a string of such crises that have blighted the country's modern history. While its immediate cause is the current El Niño-induced drought and its devastating consequences on crops in agro pastoral areas of the country, this paper digs deeper to search for the root causes of the crisis, which has left 10.2 million Ethiopians dependent on emergency aid for their survival. The question of persistent and recurring vulnerability is topical now, eleven years after the government declared food security a reality, after more than a decade of breakneck economic growth, and after billions of dollars in public funds poured into the Productive Safety Net Programme, which was meant to build the assets of regular food aid recipients and put an end to their dependence. An overview of the root causes follows.